At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a respected general, a devoted husband, and a loyal subject of the king. The first of the witches' prophecies bring out his ambitious nature, but he struggles with killing the king. By attacking his manhood, Lady Macbeth convinces him to committ the first of his evil deeds. Macbeth's evil deed causes him to suffer from fear and guilt, which leads to even more evil crimes. Then Macbeth becomes paranoid, suffering from hallucinations and sleeplessness. He becomes less human as he tries over and over to establish his manhood. His ruthlessness in killing Banquo and Macduff's family shows how perverted his idea of manliness really is.

Macbeth's degeneration is also seen in the collapse of his marital relationship. They are loving and have a mutual respect for one another at first. Lady Macbeth becomes more and more unimportant to her husband after killing Duncan, however. He leaves her out of the plan to kill Banquo, Fleance, and Macduff's family. Macbeth allows the witches to take the place of his wife by allowing them to boost his ego, thinking he cannot be harmed by any man. Macbeth is, of course, mistaken about the witches' prophecies, but this just that he now allows his evil nature to control his actions. By the end, Macbeth has degenerated into evil personified, totally inhumane in his actions.

I have read somewhere that the Spanish word desperado is derived from the idea of despair. A desperado is a man who has done something so wicked that he is doomed to hell for eternity without any hope of redemption. Since he knows he is going to hell anyway, he has no qualms about committing more sins, since his punishment in eternity could not be any worse. Macbeth seems to have become a sort of desperado with his unforgivable crime of murdering the king, his guest, his friend, his kinsman, his benefactor, his feudal lord. Macbeth himself says in a soliloquy:

Macbeth feels he has sold his soul to the Devil, the common enemy of man, whom he seems afraid even to name. He is doomed to hell for eternity. No crime he commits after this is of any consequence. He may as well derive what satisfaction he can get out of his kingship while he is still alive. His first step is to eliminate Banquo. He will rule by terror, since he cannot, like "the gracious Duncan," rule by love. The witches will encourage him to be "bloody, bold and resolute." Macbeth says of himself:

Concerning Macbeth's character changes in Shakespeare's Macbeth, I'll just elaborate slightly on the first answer above. When Macbeth first receives the prophecy predicting he will be king and Banquo's heirs will be kings, he is satisfied with the idea of being king. Banquo's heirs do not concern him at this point. Once he assassinates Duncan and is crowned king, however, this isn't enough. Now he wants his heirs to be king. He asks himself, why should he have taken all this risk just to put Banquo's heirs on the throne? Unsatisfied with just ruling himself, he plots to kill not only Banquo, but Fleance. His ambition has grown and become even more menacing.

At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth seemed a stronger character than Macbeth, but as the play progressed, the two seemed to change positions. It shows that how he was influenced by others to become cold-hearted and how he later understood his flaw.

Consider the questions:

(a) How was Macbeth at the beginning of the play?

(b) What were Macbeth's thoughts after he heard the witches' prophecies?

(c) How was Macbeth convinced by Lady Macbeth to kill Duncan?

(d) Why did Macbeth killed the two guards after Duncan's death, which was not according to the plan?

(e) Why did Macbeth wanted to kill Banquo and Fleance?

(f) When Banquo's ghost appeared at the feast, how did Macbeth and Lady Macbeth each react?

(g) How was Macbeth's second meeting with the three witches different from the first time they met? What did Macbeth wanted from them? How did this show a worsening of his character.

(h) What happenned to Lady Macbeth in the end? How did Macbeth react to the news and wha does this show of him?

(i) Why was Macbeth still so confident at the last battle?

(j) When Macbeth realized that the witches had deceivedhim, how did he react to the situation? What does his end show?

at the beginning of the play we learn macbeth through other characters he is described as noble,and worthy gentleman. we he is portrayed as what we perceive him as. us as the audience we respond to macbeth in this way because it is what we are being told he is and we quickly respond to this and expect macbeth to carry out his title but we are quickly disappointed as he goes against what gods wants him to do. he disturbs the natural order of things this is not the way god wants it to be.. but he has gone against his own will to cause this

At the beginning of the play macbeth is a noble, respected and honest gentleman. He is a loyal follower of the king and would never disobey him. However, Lady Macbeth finds his weakness by questioning his manliness, which eventually leads him to kill the king due to the witches profesicing his acent to power brings out his ambition to fulfill his potential for his leadership. However, he does not have trouble killing the king because it is over so quickly, although he does have trouble placing the daggers back to his bedchambers.

Further on through the play Lady Macbeth's guilt gets to her and ends up hanging herself. Macbeth, on the other hand starts to go mad with power, meanwhile he has to start killing all the people he suspects to have known about the killing of Duncan. In the end, Macbeth ends up going into a one on one with Macduff (who was not born of a womans womb) and gets killed.

Macbeth is, of course, mistaken about the witches' prophecies, but this just that he now allows his evil nature to control his actions. By the end, Macbeth has degenerated into evil personified, totally inhumane in his actions.

I believe that Macbeth's character change is too extreme. From being a loyal subject and essentially a good man, he becomes a terrible tyrant, and in the end he is behaving like a madman. It was not logically necessary for Macbeth to turn into such a hateful tyrant just because he committed a murder to become king. Shakespeare made him a tyrant to justify the military intervention of the English monarch. As Ross describes Scotland in Act 4, Scene 3:

Alas, poor country,Almost afraid to know itself! It cannotBe call'd our mother, but our grave. Where nothing,But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air,Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seemsA modern ecstasy. The dead man's knellIs there scarce ask'd for who, and good men's livesExpire before the flowers in their caps,Dying or ere they sicken.

The English king cannot tolerate this state of affairs. He is not interested in Scottish politics and would not raise an army to place Malcolm on the throne unless there were a more urgent reason for the expense and danger. For all the English king knows, Malcolm might indeed have been responsible for his father's murder. But if Scotland is in chaos, it will have a negative impact on England in many ways, including commerce, and an influx of refugees who might be a drain on resources and even behave like hostile invaders.

So Shakespeare has to make Macbeth a consummate tyrant in order to justify the English invasion and the success of Malcolm and Macduff.

At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a respected general, a devoted husband, and a loyal subject of the king. The first of the witches' prophecies bring out his ambitious nature, but he struggles with killing the king. By attacking his manhood, Lady Macbeth convinces him to committ the first of his evil deeds. Macbeth's evil deed causes him to suffer from fear and guilt, which leads to even more evil crimes. Then Macbeth becomes paranoid, suffering from hallucinations and sleeplessness. He becomes less human as he tries over and over to establish his manhood. His ruthlessness in killing Banquo and Macduff's family shows how perverted his idea of manliness really is.

Macbeth's degeneration is also seen in the collapse of his marital relationship. They are loving and have a mutual respect for one another at first. Lady Macbeth becomes more and more unimportant to her husband after killing Duncan, however. He leaves her out of the plan to kill Banquo, Fleance, and Macduff's family. Macbeth allows the witches to take the place of his wife by allowing them to boost his ego, thinking he cannot be harmed by any man. Macbeth is, of course, mistaken about the witches' prophecies, but this just that he now allows his evil nature to control his actions. By the end, Macbeth has degenerated into evil personified, totally inhumane in his actions.

SECOND PART

Concerning Macbeth's character changes in Shakespeare's Macbeth, I'll just elaborate slightly on the first answer above. When Macbeth first receives the prophecy predicting he will be king and Banquo's heirs will be kings, he is satisfied with the idea of being king. Banquo's heirs do not concern him at this point. Once he assassinates Duncan and is crowned king, however, this isn't enough. Now he wants his heirs to be king. He asks himself, why should he have taken all this risk just to put Banquo's heirs on the throne? Unsatisfied with just ruling himself, he plots to kill not only Banquo, but Fleance. His ambition has grown and become even more menacing.